Apparatus for manufacturing electric wire having wire-enamel-type insulation

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for manufacturing insulated electric wire of the enamelled-wire type wherein an insulating sheath adhering to the wire is formed by extrusion of selected thermoplastics which are heated to a temperature above their melting-point, then pressed onto the wire while in a fluid state. The extrusion apparatus includes a gauging die with a compressing cone having an aperture angle of from 2° to 20°, preferably 7°.

This invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing electric wirehaving insulation of the wire-enamel type, wherein a high-melting-pointsynthetic resin is heated to a temperature at least as high as itsmelting-point, and a thin sheath of resin is formed about the wire.

What is called "insulated electric wire of the enamelled-wire type" iswire which is intended to be used in producing windings for electricalapparatus such as motors, transformers, magnetic coils, or otherelectrical components intended to operate under load conditions suchthat their temperature is higher than the ambient temperature. Forreasons of spacesaving and economy, the sheath of insulating materialcovering such wire should be as thin as possible, while for reasons ofdurability and reliability, the insulating material should be stable atthe operating temperature.

The requirements which must be met by such wire are laid down in certainstandard specifications. According to the German Industrial Standards,for example, these requirements are set forth particularly in DIN Sheets46435 and 46416.

The traditional method of manufacture utilized for wire havingenamel-type insulation consists in preparing a solution of an organicsynthetic resin in a suitable solvent. This liquid is placed inrecipients through which the wire passes. A film of liquid is thendeposited on the surface of the wire. This method requires a subsequenttreatment operation to remove the solvent. Moreover, it necessitatesseveral successive passages of the wire through the bath of insulatingmaterial in order to obtain the required thickness of insulation.Finally, the speed at which the wire travels is necessarily limited to arate on the order of several meters per minute.

In order to avoid the drawbacks of this traditional system, especiallythe detrimental effects on the environment caused by the burning orevaporation of the solvent and the waste of energy involved in thisoperation, it has already been sought to replace the soluble resins usedheretofore by synthetic materials capable of being heated withoutdeterioration up to a temperature above that which the insulatingmaterial must withstand during operation. According to German DisclosedApplication (DOS) No. 2,135,157, the plastic material is contained in abath heated to a temperature above the melting-point. However, thismethod is delicate to carry out owing to the high temperatures required.It is slow, and it also leads to waste of material when an operationmust be interrupted, for the remainder of the material still containedin the recipient is then generally lost.

According to German Disclosed Application (DOS) No. 2,022,802, asynthetic resin without solvent is introduced into an extruder, thenforced into an extrusion unit. The latter forms a tube of plasticmaterial, thicker than the ultimate insulating layer, about the wire inthe open air. This tube leaves the extruder at a lower speed than thatat which the wire travels through the extrusion unit. The tube contractson the wire as it cools and is subjected to drawing at the exit of theextrusion head. The insulating material requires further treatment. Thismethod yields the thickness of insulation specified by the standards,i.e., not exceeding about 15-34 microns, for example, for a wire 1 mm.in diameter having a single layer of insulation. For reinforcedinsulation, the standard thickness of the layer of insulating materialis from 30 to 46 microns. However, the insulated wire of theenamelled-wire type obtained in this manner is not uniform. GermanDisclosed Application (DOS) No. 2,110,934 also describes a method of thesame type.

It is known that for producing insulated wire intended for use inlow-current installations, e.g., telephone wire, it is customary todeposit a thermoplastic insulating material on gauged copper or aluminumwire in an extrusion operation by means of a unit which forms a sheathabout the wire. It has hitherto been thought that it was not possible touse such a unit for forming such thin sheaths as those required by theabove-mentioned standards, above all not if the insulating material wasone having high thermal resistance.

It has been found, however, that contrary to this prejudice, it ispossible to use such a unit under certain conditions, and it is anobject of this invention to provide an improved apparatus formanufacturing electric wire of the type initially mentioned whichenables high-speed production thereof by means of an extrusion unit, theresultant enamel-type insulated wire having surface qualities, hardness,thickness of insulation, and performance at high temperatures meetingthe requirements of the standards in force.

The apparatus of the present invention performs the steps of passing thewire through an extrusion unit, forcing the heated resin into theextrusion unit, and pressing the resin about the wire within theextrusion unit.

According to the invention, the apparatus comprises a screw extruderhaving an outlet orifice, an extrusion head secured to that orifice, andone or more extrusion units forming part of the extrusion head and eachincluding a gauging die having compressing means. The improvement of thepresent invention comprises a distribution chamber wherein the plasticmaterial gradually accelerates before reaching the compression chamber.

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described in detailwith reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic plan view of apparatus according to theinvention,

FIG. 2 is an elevation, on a larger scale, of a multiple extrusion head,and

FIG. 3 is an axial section, on a still larger scale, of an extrusionunit fixed to the multiple extrusion head.

The apparatus illustrated in the drawings comprises a wire-drawer 1, anannealer 2, a multiple extrusion head 3 secured to the end of thecylinder of an extruder 4 driven by a motor 5, and a cooling vat 6. Theapparatus as a whole is designed for the simultaneous treatment of fourwires f conveyed parallel to one another through the various parts ofthe apparatus. The wires f may be of copper or aluminum and about 1 mm.in diameter, for example. They emanate from a pay-out installation (notshown) which supplies the wiredrawer 1. Upon leaving the cooling vat 6,the wires f are taken up by a withdrawal mechanism and led onto reels(not shown).

The wiredrawer 1 may be of a conventional type having one or morestages. It need not be described in detail here.

The annealer 2 is likewise of a type known per se. It will preferably bea resistance-type annealer having electrolyte contact devices. Each wiref is thus guided by pulleys so as to follow a vertical path and passesthrough two pots which contain an electrolyte and establish the contactbetween the wire and the current feed. Between these pots, an electriccurrent passes through the wire and heats it to annealing temperature.The electrolyte ensures not only good contact between the wire and thecurrent feed but also pickling or descaling of the wire.

Immediately after the annealer 2, each of the four wires f passesthrough a respective extrusion unit of the multiple head 3 so as to becoated with an insulating sheath at a temperature corresponding to thatof the liquid insulating material forming that sheath. The multiple head3 is shown in greater detail in FIGS. 2 and 3. It comprises at the top adistributor 7 through which there passes a horizontal duct 8communicating with the outlet orifice of the extruder 4. The distributorduct 8 has four vertical branches 9, each of which passes through a body10 of a respective displacement pump 11 rotatingly driven by an electricmotor 12. Each motor 12 drives the associated pump 11 via aspeed-reducer 13 and a coupling 14. The pumps 11 are, for example, gearpumps. The motors 12 and the speed-reducers 13 are secured to a pedestal15 which is in turn fixed to a support 16. The bodies 10 of the pumps 11may be combined into a single unit secured beneath the distributor 7 andattached to the pedestal 15. Each pump 11 discharges into an outlet duct17 extending vertically downwards within the body 10 and communicatingwith a respective extrusion unit 18. The extrusion units 18 are situatedin the paths of the wires f, one of which passes axially through eachunit 18.

The extrusion unit 18 shown in FIG. 3 is composed of various partsassembled in such a way as to be easily dismantled. The unit 18comprises a body 19 fixed beneath the pump body 10 by means of a flange19a; an inlet duct 20 passes through the top of the body 19 andcommunicates with the discharge duct 17. The duct 20 opens out into afrustoconical bore 21, the axis of which is horizontal, in which borethere is disposed a die-holder 22, the outer side surface of which islikewise frustoconical and bears against the bore 21. The die-holder 22is a tubular part, in the frustoconical side surface of which there isan annular groove 23 which communicates with the duct 20 and serves todistribute the plastic material. The two ends 22a and 22b of thedie-holder 22 are threaded and intended to receive, respectively, acheck-nut 24 for holding a gauging die 25 on the downstream end 22b anda nut 26 for securing the die-holder 22 to the body 19 at the upstreamend 22a. The interior of the tubular part 22 has at its downstream end acylindrical bore 27 in which the gauging die 25 is fitted, in the middlea frustoconical bore 28 which holds and centers a guiding die 29, and atthe upstream end a cylindrical bore 30, the diameter of whichcorresponds to that of the smaller-diameter end of the frustoconicalbore 28. A series of oblique holes 31 are drilled in the die-holder 22between the bottom of the groove 23 and the zone where the bore 27 joinsthe bore 28. Through the holes 31, the plastic material discharged intothe duct 20 reaches the space bounded by the bore 27 and the gauging andguiding dies 25 and 29 situated one behind the other within thedie-holder 22. This space constitutes a distribution chamber which feedsthe die 25. The dies 25 and 29 are high-precision parts. The centralpassage way of the die 29 contains a diamond ring-gauge 32 secured bymeans of a pierced cap 33 and having a central aperture matching thewire f in diameter. The downstream face of the die 29 is offrustoconical shape; the side surface thereof is cylindrical and facesthe bore 27; the downstream face of the pierced cap 33 is plane andperpendicular to the axis of its central passageway.

The die 25 comprises, on the upstream side thereof, an entry cone 34,the surface of which is substantially parallel to the downstream face ofthe die 29 and which bounds, together with the latter, an annular zoneof the aforementioned distribution chamber, the thickness of whichvaries gradually and is so calculated that the plastic material will begradually accelerated as it moves towards the axis of the unit. Theinner end of the entry cone 34 of the die 25 joins a compression cone 35which bounds the central passageway of the die 25 and joins acylindrical bore 36 extending up to the downstream end of the die 25.

It has been found that the dimensioning of the gauging die 25 plays avery important part in obtaining the desired result. The frustoconicalbore 35 forming the compressing means must have an aperture angle α ofbetween 2° and 20°, as the case may be, but preferably 7° for theexamples cited here, while the diameter of the cylindrical bore 36 willbe equal to the outside diameter of the insulating sheath to bedeposited on the wire f. This diameter will therefore be slightlygreater than that of the wire f; the difference can vary from about 10microns to about 100 microns depending upon the characteristics desiredfor the insulated wire and required by the standards. The length L,which represents the distance between the exit of the gauging die 25 andthe exit of the guiding die 29, also plays a large part in obtaining thedesired result. The length L may vary from 4 mm. to 40 mm. or from onetime to four hundred times the diameter of the metal core of theprocessed wire, depending upon the application. Finally, the gauging die25 will preferably be made of sintered hard metal (tungsten carbide),and its inner faces which are in contact with the plastic material willexhibit a mirror-polish surface condition preferably obtained by anelectrolytic polishing operation.

As has already been stated above, the extruder 4 is a screw extruder,the cylinder of which contains a single screw and which is driven by themotor 5 at a variable speed. The extruder 4 is equipped with regulatingmeans comprising a pressure detector 37 connected to the outlet of theextruder and a regulator 38 which controls the speed of the motor 5.This arrangement controls the flow of plastic material and keeps thepressure constant at the outlet of the extruder 4. The motors 12 drivingthe pumps 11 are likewise controlled by regulating devices, eachcomprising a pressure detector 39, responsive to the pressure prevailingin the duct 20, and a regulator 40 controlling the speed of the motor12. Thus there is obtained a flow of plastic material which iscontrolled at a constant value and which reaches the die-holder 22 at apressure which is likewise constant.

As concerns the temperature conditions, these, too, must be veryprecisely controlled. For this purpose, both the cylinder of theextruder and the extrusion head may be provided with heating elements.Thus the body 19 of the extrusion unit 18 illustrated in FIG. 3 bears aheating element 41. Temperature sensors may be mounted in the extrusionunits 18, as well as in the distributor and the outlet of the cylinderof the extruder 4, these temperature sensors controlling the heatingelements 41 so that the temperature of the plastic material ismaintained at the required levels at the various points of theapparatus. In certain cases, the die may also be provided with a heatingelement 42.

Finally, in order to obtain good results, it is indispensable for thespeed of each of the wires f to correspond constantly to the flow ofplastic material so that the insulating sheath may be depositeduniformly on the wire. Thus the flow-regulating device made up of theelements 37, 38, 39, 40 may be controlled by the speed of travel of thewire f and, consequently, by the operating speeds of the withdrawalmechanism and of the wire-drawer 1.

It should be noted that it is not absolutely necessary to interpose adisplacement pump such as the pump 11 between the cylinder of theextruder 4 and the extrusion unit 18. In the case of apparatus treatingonly one wire, for example, this pump could be eliminated. However, inthe case of apparatus treating a plurality of wires in parallel, thepresence of the pumps 11 provides several additional advantages. It ispossible to regulate the flow into the various extrusion units 18independently of one another and, consequently, to work with differentunits and treat wires of different diameters in parallel. Moreover,these pumps make it possible to block one of the lines while stillallowing the others to operate. For instance, in the event of breakageof a wire in the wiredrawer, the corresponding pump may immediately becut off by a detector safety device. Since it is a displacement pump, itthen acts as a stop gate which closes. The pressure in the distributorduct 8 is maintained, and the other extrusion units can continue tooperate while the unit corresponding to the broken wire is dismantledand put back in order.

A more specific description will now be given of the operatingconditions which enable the production, by means of the apparatusdescribed above, of enamel-insulated wire answering the specificationsof DIN standards 46416 ff., especially 46435 and 46453.

The first requirement to be met in order to produce wire resistant tothe specified maximum temperatures (type W 180 ) is that the insulationmust withstand a temperature of 265° C. without breakdown. For thispurpose, certain partially crystalline thermoplastic polycondensates,wherein the melting-point of the crystalline elements is above 170° C.,or preferably even 250° C., are used as insulating material. Certainknown products, such as polyethylene terephthalate (PETP),6,6-polyamide, or polyphenyl sulfide, meet these requirements. These arevery high melting-point thermoplastic products which may be introducedinto the hopper of the extruder in the form of pellets, powder, or aconglomerate. The mixing of these products in the extruder raises theirtemperature to above their softening-point. The heating elements withwhich both the cylinder of the extruder 4 and the extrusion head 3 areequipped then make it possible to increase the temperature stillfurther. Thus the temperature control permits gradually reaching atemperature of about 320° C. in the extrusion unit 18 when the materialused is polyethylene terephthalate (melting-point 256° C.), about 290°C. with 6,6-polyamide (melting-point 255° C.), and about 320°-340° C.with certain products having a melting-point of 280° C. Hence theplastic material reaches the extrusion unit in a state which isappreciably above its melting-point, so that it behaves as a trulyhydrostatic fluid.

It has been found that it is advisable to exert upon this fluid pressureamounting to from 10 to 1,000 bars, as the case may be. Preferably,however, this pressure will be above 60 bars, and the pumps 11 willprovide a compression ratio of 1:2, the pressure at the outlet of theextruder thus being half the final pressure. It will be noted that thispressure is maintained in the chamber situated between the gauging dieand the guiding die owing to the particular configuration of thepassageway of the gauging die, and especially owing to the cone 35, thedimensions of which will therefore be selected accordingly.

As has already been stated above, the speed of travel of the wire fconstitutes the initial value which controls the operation of theapparatus, and particularly the output of the extruder. Whereas inapparatus utilizing a bath, the speed of travel of the wire is limitedto a few meters or a few dozen meters per minute, it has proved possiblewhen using apparatus such as is described above to vary the speed oftravel of the wire from about 20-50 m./min. up to speeds on the order of300-500 m./min. depending upon the products used. Owing to the shape ofthe distribution chamber situated within the extrusion unit, the plasticmaterial is pulled along by the wire inside the compressing means 35 andinto the passageway 36, so that it is subjected to very strong radialpressure when passing through the die. As a result, the wire is keptperfectly centered in the passageway 36, on the one hand, and theplastic material forms a compressed and compact sheath upon the wire, onthe other hand. With the precision unit described above, it has beenpossible to produce insulation about 20-50 microns thick on wire from0.6 to 1 mm. in diameter and a hardness of from 1H to 3H (DIN 45453).

With the products mentioned above, simple cooling suffices to give theinsulating sheath its definitive structure. As a variation, curingtreatments such as exposure to beta- or gamma-rays might also beutilized.

The thermoplastic materials mentioned above by way of example have beenthoroughly tested in apparatus of the type described, and the results ofthese tests are set forth in co-pending application Ser. No. 811,364,now U.S. Pat. No. 4,145,474 (corresponding to Swiss patent applicationNo. 8445/76) entitled "Method of Manufacturing Insulated Electric Wireof the Enamelled-Wire Type by Extrusion," which discloses a methodutilizing an extrusion material containing at least one partiallycrystalline thermoplastic polycondensate wherein the melting-point ofthe crystallites is above 170° C. This co-pending application containsexamples of these thermoplastic materials.

Other thermoplastic products may, of course, equally well be used tofeed the extruder of the apparatus described. Several such products maybe mixed, and it is possible to add additives thereto, e.g., dyepigments, or resins facilitating flow in the unit.

Generally speaking, the apparatus described is applicable for wirehaving a metal core between 0.1 and 4.0 mm. in diameter.

What is claimed is:
 1. Apparatus for manufacturing insulated electricwire of the enamelled-wire type with an insulating sheath of plasticmaterial, comprising a screw extruder and an extrusion head connected atthe downstream end of said screw-extruder, said extrusion headcomprising at least one extrusion unit formed of a die-holder with agauging die and a guiding die coaxially held therein, said gauging diehaving: a cylindrical bore portion at its downstream end; afrustoconical bore joining said cylindrical bore portion at the upstreamside thereof; and a frustoconical entry portion of an aperture anglegreater than said frustoconical bore, joining said frustoconical bore atthe upstream end thereof, said guiding die having a central passagewaymatching said wire in diameter and a downstream face of frustoconicalshape facing said entry portion, said downstream face and said entryportion determining therebetween an annular distribution chamber offrustoconical shape arranged in such a manner that said plastic materialgradually accelerates therein, and said die holder containing holestherethrough for feeding the annular base of said distribution chamberwith plastic material from said extruder.
 2. Apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein said frustoconical bore has an aperture angle ofbetween 2° and 20°.
 3. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein saidaperture angle is about 7°.
 4. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein adistance between one time and four hundred times the diameter of saidwire is provided between the exit ends of said gauging and guiding diesrespectively.
 5. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1, furthercomprising a distributor connecting said extrusion head to saidextruder, said extrusion head being a multiple extrusion head bearing aplurality of said extrusion units fed in parallel.
 6. Apparatus inaccordance with claim 1, wherein said extrusion head is provided with atleast one displacement pump for forcing resin emanating from saidextruder at a controlled rate of flow towards said one or more extrusionunits.
 7. Apparatus in accordance with claim 6, further comprising aplurality of motors for respectively driving said pumps, a distributorconnecting said extrusion head to said extruder, and control means forcontrolling said rate of flow, said extrusion head being a multipleextrusion head bearing a plurality of said extrusion units fed inparallel and a plurality of said displacement pumps, each said pumpfeeding a respective said extrusion unit and receiving said resin fromsaid distributor, and said control means comprising a plurality ofregulators respectively connected to said extrusion units for regulatingthe speeds of said motors.
 8. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1,further comprising a wire-annealer disposed upstream from said extrusionhead.
 9. Apparatus in accordance with claim 8, further comprising awiredrawer disposed upstream from said wire-annealer.